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Saint Mary Magdalene - Years ABC
John 20.1-2,11-18

On this Lesser Festival, one could highlight what we know
about Mary Magdalene from the scriptures. The following are all of the
references to her. Her major "claim to fame" is being at the
crucifixion, at the empty tomb, given a message from angels to report to the
disciples (in an age when women were not allowed to be witnesses in court!),
and, according to some, the first see the risen Christ.

Present at the crucifixion and burial of Jesus

Mt 27:56, 61

Mk 15:40, 47

Jo 19:25

At the tomb Sunday morning given a message from angels to report to the disciples

Mt 28:1*

Mk 16:1, [9]*

Lu 24:10

Jn 20:1, 11,* 16,* 18*

*includes resurrection appearance

A "follower" and supporter of Jesus and from whom
had cast out seven demons

Lu 8:2

Mk 16:9 (in the added ending)

Philip Pfatteicher, (Festivals and Commemorations:
Handbook to the Calendar in Lutheran Book of Worship) presents the following
summary of Mary Magdalene and prayer emphases for the day.

Mary Magdalene, called "the apostle to the
Apostles" by Bernard of Clairvaux, carried the news of the resurrection
to the Twelve. Whenever the gospels list the women who were with Jesus, Mary
Magdalene is listed first (John 19:25 is the sole exception), perhaps
because she was the first to see the risen Jesus. Luke 8:2 reports that
Jesus had cured her of possession by seven demons. She has often been
identified with the repentant "woman of the city" who anointed
Jesus' feet as he sat at the table in the Pharisee's home (Luke 7:36-50),
and her title on the calendar has been "Penitent." (There has been
no one else with this title.) There is, however, no biblical basis for this
identification of Mary with the penitent prostitute. Nor is she to be
identified with Mary of Bethany, an identification common in the Western
church since the sixth century, although it is rejected in the East.

According to the gospels, Mary of Magdala is the primary
witness to the fundamental facts of the Christian proclamation: she saw the
death of Jesus, she saw his burial, she saw his first resurrection
appearance. Her commemoration on July 22 is observed in both the Eastern and
the Western churches, and, especially since the twelfth century, she has
become one of the most widely commemorated women in Christendom.

Prayers

for those in mental darkness

for grace to perceive signs of new life around us

for insight to find in each act of worship the coming of the
risen Christ

for love to lay hold of salvation and to share it with others
[pp. 292-295]

It is sometimes held that Mary Magdalene was the woman
Luke tells about whom, to the righteous horror of Simon the Pharisee, Jesus
let wash his feet and dry them with her hair despite her highly unsavory
reputation, and about whom Jesus said, "I tell you, her sins, which are
many, are forgiven because she loved much (Luke 7:47). It's a
powerful story, and it would be nice to think that Mary Magdalene is the one
it's about, but unfortunately there's no really good reason for doing so.

When Jesus was on the road with his disciples, he had a
group of women with him whom he'd cast evil spirits out of once and who had
not only joined up with him but all chipped in to help meet expenses. One of
them was Mary Magdalene, and in her case it was apparently not just one evil
spirit that had been cast out but seven. Just what her problem had been,
nobody says, but helped along by the story in Luke, tradition has it that
she'd been a whore. Maybe so. In any case, she seems to have teamed up with
Jesus early in the game and to have stuck with him to the end. And beyond.

It's at the end that she comes into focus most clearly.
She was one of the women who was there in the background when he was being
crucified – she had more guts than most of them had – and she was also
one of the ones who was there when they put what was left of him in the
tomb. But the time that you see her best was on that first Sunday morning
after his death.

John is the one who gives the greatest detail, and
according to him it was still dark when she went to the tomb to discover
that the stone had been rolled away from the entrance and that, inside, it
was empty as a drum. She ran back to wherever the disciples were hiding out
to tell them, and Peter and one of the others returned with her to check out
her story. They found out that it was true and that there was nothing there
except some pieces of cloth the body had been wrapped in. They left then,
but Mary stayed on outside the tomb someplace and started to cry. Two angels
came and asked her what she was crying about, and she said, "Because
they have taken away my lord, and I do not know where they have laid
him" (John 20:13). She wasn't thinking in terms of anything
miraculous, in other words; she was thinking simply that even in death they
wouldn't let him be and somebody had stolen his body.

Then another person came up to her and asked the same
questions. Why was she crying? What was she doing there? She decided it must
be somebody in charge, like the gardener maybe, and she said if he was the
one who had moved the body somewhere else, would he please tell her where it
was so she could go there.

Instead of answering her, he spoke her name – Mary –
and then she recognized who he was, and though from that instant forward the
whole course of human history was changed in so many profound and complex
ways that it's impossible to imagine how it would have been different
otherwise, for Mary Magdalene the only thing that had changed was that for
reasons she was in no state to consider, her old friend and teacher and
strong right arm was alive again, and RABBONI! she shouted and was about to
throw her arms around him for sheer joy and astonishment when he stopped
her.

Noli me tangere, he said. Touch me not. Don't hold
on to me (John 20:17), thus making her not only the first person
in the world to have her heart stop beating for a second to find him alive
again when she'd thought he was dead as a doornail but the first person also
to have her heart break a little to realize that he couldn't be touched any
more, wasn't there any more as a hand to hold onto when the going got tough,
a shoulder to weep on, because the life in him was no longer a life she
could know by touching it, with her here and him there, but a life she could
know only by living it: with her here – old tart and retread, old
broken-heart and last, best friend – and with him here too, alive inside
her life, to raise her up also out of the wreckage of all that was wrecked
in her and dead.

In the meanwhile, he had much to do and far to go, he
said, and so did she, and the first thing she did was go back to the
disciples to report. "I have seen the Lord," she said, and
whatever dark doubts they might have had on the subject earlier, one look at
her face was enough to melt them all away like morning mist. (John
20:1-18). [pp. 101-103]

Another options on this day is to center on these verses from
John. Most of the following notes come from my comments on the Easter text
(20:1-18).

There are two biblical themes related to the resurrection:
(1) finding the empty tomb and (2) appearances of the risen Christ. There are no
canonical accounts of the actual resurrection (although there is one in the
Gospel of Peter).

Our text is divided into two parts -- related to the two
types of biblical resurrection narratives.

(1) Finding the empty tomb (20:1-10)

(a) by Mary (20:1-2)

(b) by Peter and the beloved disciple (20:3-10)

(2) The resurrected Jesus appears to Mary (20:11-18)

(a) Mary sees angels at the empty tomb (20:11-13)

(b) Mary sees Jesus, but think he's the gardener (20:14-15)

(c) Mary sees Jesus after he utters her name (20:16-17)

(d) Mary reports the appearance to the disciples (20:18)

For this Lesser Festival, the story about Peter and the
beloved disciple finding the empty tomb is omitted. The emphasis is on Mary.

MARY FINDS THE TOMB EMPTY

Repeatedly Jesus had said that he would be "raised on
the third day," but none of the resurrection accounts use that expression.
Rather they say "on the first day of the week". Perhaps this was to
emphasize the change from seventh to first day worship.

All four of the biblical accounts indicate that Mary
Magdalene was one of the first at the empty tomb. In John she appears to be the
only one, while in the synoptics other women are mentioned.

We are not told why Mary has gone to the tomb. Given the
information only from this text, I would guess that she went to mourn the dead.
Four times we are told that she is crying (klaio -- vv. 11, 11, 13, 15)
-- the same reaction of another Mary at the death of her brother Lazarus (11:31,
33). The deceased were usually buried on the day they died and the mourning
followed.

John tells us that Mary came "while it is still
dark." The synoptics indicate that the women come at dawn (Mt & Lk) or
sunrise (Mk). A symbolic meaning of this difference has been suggested that the
synoptics emphasize light's triumph over darkness and John (at this point in the
story) emphasizes the darkness of the (supposedly) stolen body. Even if it were
dark when Mary arrived at the tomb, light would have to come shortly so that the
two disciples would be able to see the cloths inside the tomb.

SEEING AND BELIEVING WITH VARIOUS COMMENTS

"Dark" may also refer to the blindness of seeing
the truth. Seven times in this text words for "seeing" are used; and
the seeing always results in some belief about what is seen -- and that belief
is usually wrong!

Mary sees [blepo] the stone rolled away
from the tomb (v. 1).

She believes that "they have taken the
lord" (v. 2).

Her comment, "We don't know where they have placed
him" recalls the theme throughout John about knowing where Jesus
comes from and where he is going (e.g., 7:33-36; 8:21-23).

The use of we has led some to speculate that there
were other women with Mary as reported in the synoptics, but it is a singular in
v. 13. I am more inclined to think that she used "we" in opposition to
the "they" she assumed stole the body; or a collective "we"
to refer to all of Jesus' followers.

Grave robbing was a troublesome crime at this time. There was
an imperial edict against it. It would have been natural for her (and other
disciples) to conclude that someone had stolen the body.

The two disciples see [blepo, v. 5, theoreo,
v. 6] the cloths lying in the tomb.

The beloved disciple sees [orao] and believes
(v. 8).

Peter apparently doesn't believe.

Whatever the beloved disciple believed wasn't complete as v.
9 indicates: "For as yet they did not understand the scripture that
he must rise from the dead."

Remembering that this is part of the "empty tomb"
story, he could only believe as much as the empty tomb allowed -- Christ was no
longer in the tomb, and it was likely that his body had not been stolen. Thieves
would not have neatly folded the linens after unwrapped the body.

Mary sees [theoreo] two angels in the
tomb (v. 12).

She still believes that someone has taken the
body (v. 13).

The angels give no Easter announcements, but draw attention
to Mary's grief. Their sitting at the head and feet of where Jesus' lay may
relate to "angels ascending and descending on the Son of Man" (1:51)
and thus point to the in-breaking of the promised new age (rather than being
messengers of the resurrection).

Mary sees [theoreo] Jesus (v. 14).

She believes she is seeing the gardener (v.
15).

Note again the attention to Mary's grief.

It is only through the word from Jesus that Mary able to see
and believe correctly. In addition, Mary is told to go and speak to the
disciples (v. 17).

Mary declares to the disciples, "I have seen [orao]
the Lord" (v. 18)

The disciples may not see what she has seen. She can't show
them what she has seen. She can only tell them what she has seen and heard and
believes. They may or may not believe what she declares.

So it is with us today. Our belief in the resurrection
doesn't come from what we see, but from what we hear. What we see, may not
necessarily lead to a correct belief about Jesus. Mary illustrates an emphasis
in the gospel of John -- correct faith comes from hearing, not seeing.

MARY AT THE TOMB AND WITH JESUS

As I mentioned earlier, Mary's weeping is emphasized in this
section. It may indicate the reason she came to the tomb -- to mourn the dead.
It also contains a symbolic meaning in John. Besides the weeping at the tombs of
Jesus and Lazarus, the only other instance of this word (klaio) is 16:20:
"Very truly, I tell you, you will weep and mourn, but the world will
rejoice; you will have pain, but your pain will turn into joy."

I also think that 16:22 relates to our text: "So you
have pain now; but I will see [orao] you again, and your hearts will
rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you."

Mary is weeping and mourning over (1) the death of Jesus; and
(2) the fact that she thinks someone has stolen the body and she doesn't know
where it is. The transformation promised in ch. 16 takes place through a word
and the presence of Jesus. Her pain and weeping is turned into joy. Jesus has
seen her again.

The calling of Mary's name recalls the image Jesus gives in
John 10: "The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep hear his
voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out" (v. 3).

A similar "eye-opening" event -- although centered
on breaking bread rather than the word -- occurs in the Road to Emmaus story (Lk
24:13-35).

Mary is told not to hold on [hapto] to Jesus
(v. 17), yet later Jesus will tell Thomas to touch [phero = put,
reach out; and ballo = cast, put, place] his wounds (v. 27). Different
words are used. The risen Jesus standing before Mary is not the Jesus who will
stay forever. Neither she nor we can "hold on" to him. The permanent
presence of Christ will be through the Spirit whom Jesus and the Father will
send after Jesus' glorification (7:39; 14:26; 15:26; 16:13). Jesus'
glorification involves being lifted up on the cross, being lifted up from death,
and being lifted into heaven.

From the covenant language at the end of v. 17, it would seem
that the ascension is necessary for us to have the same relationship with God
the Father as Jesus has with him -- a relationship mediated through the Spirit.

I'll close with a comment I like from Fred Craddock on this
text in Preaching through the Christian Year, Year A.

...even for disciples like Mary, Easter does not return
her and Jesus to the past; Easter opens up a new future. The earthly
ministry is over; now the ministry of the exalted, glorified, ever-abiding
Christ begins. "Nevertheless I tell you the truth: it is to your
advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Advocate will not
come to you" (16:7). In fact, the one who believes will do even greater
works than Jesus did, "because I am going to the Father" (14:12).
Therefore, Jesus says to Mary Magdalene, "Do not hold on to me"
(v. 17). Rather, she is to go and announce his resurrection and his
ascension to the presence of God, from whose presence the Holy Spirit will
come to lead, comfort, and empower the church. [p. 246]

The resurrection is not a return to the past, but a movement
to the future. Neither Mary nor we nor our congregations can hold on to the past
after resurrection. We look to the even greater future that God has in store for
us through the power of the Holy Spirit. We have been called, as Mary was, to
spread the news that Jesus has been raised and continues to live.